Incomplete devil's staircase in the magnetization curve of SrCu2(BO3)2

Phys Rev Lett. 2013 Feb 8;110(6):067210. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.067210. Epub 2013 Feb 8.

Abstract

We report on NMR and torque measurements on the frustrated quasi-two-dimensional spin-dimer system SrCu(2)(BO(3))(2) in magnetic fields up to 34 T that reveal a sequence of magnetization plateaus at 1/8, 2/15, 1/6, and 1/4 of the saturation and two incommensurate phases below and above the 1/6 plateau. The magnetic structures determined by NMR involve a stripe order of triplets in all plateaus, suggesting that the incommensurate phases originate from proliferation of domain walls. We propose that the magnetization process of SrCu(2)(BO(3))(2) is best described as an incomplete devil's staircase.